CROSS-REFERENCING FOR FUN AND ILLUMINATION PART 1

THOUGH OTHER BREWER’S PUBLICATIONS HAVE APPEARED here at SimanaitisSays, I don’t believe I’ve ever told you about Brewer’s Rogues, Villains & Eccentrics: An A–Z of Roguish Britons Through the Ages. 

Brewer’s Rogues, Villains & Eccentrics: An A–Z of Roguish Britons Through the Ages, by William Donaldson, Cassell, 2002.

Cross-Reference Organization. Brewer’s William Donaldson writes, “Even the most devoted admirers of Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable admit that it is sometimes difficult to find in it exactly what one is looking for. Accordingly, I have introduced an innovative system of cross-referencing, though whether I have improved matters or made them worse I’m far from clear.” 

Let’s offer an example: Suppose you’re interested in roguish, villainous, or eccentric Brit drunks. Rather than skim through thousands of names in hope of stumbling on one, Donaldson offers the following cross-references:

drunk and indecent in South Eaton Place. See Vivian, Anthony Crespigny Claude, 5th Baron.

drunk in his shirtsleeves at four in the afternoon. See Poulson, John (for Reginald Maudling).

drunks, convivial. See Kean, Edmund; Newton, Robert.

drunks, nightmare. See Hell-Fire Club, The Irish.

Geez. How could you not consult each of these entries?

Here, in Parts 1 and 2 today and tomorrow, are other interesting cross-references.

butler, running off with the. See Kaggs, John. Doing so yields, “John Kaggs (c. 1790–c. 1870), distinguished patriarch of the Kaggs family whose members were among the most creative tricksters in Victorian London. Mr Kaggs had begun his career as a domestic servant. Having risen to the rank of butler, he had run off with, and married, the daughter of his employer. They had several children, of whom Betsy, the eldest, was an accomplished actress.”

The family scam: “Attended by a servant, Betsy would call at the house of a philanthropic lady, to whom she would introduce herself as the daughter of a gallant but ailing army officer now reduced to poverty. To raise a little money, she was offering her few possessions for sale to ladies known for their charitable works.” 

“In some cases,” Brewer’s continues, “this led to a visit from the benefactress to the Kaggs home. Mr Kaggs was put to bed in the garret, his face made up to suggest that he was mortally ill…. Another daughter was dressed as a nurse…. The visitor would be told that the stricken Mr Kaggs had been wounded at Barrosa in the Peninsular War and discharged from the army. An unworldly half-lieutenant, he had been persuaded to invest his small savings in railway shares only to be cheated out of them by an absconding broker….”

“It was a faultless performance,” Brewer’s notes, “and the Kaggs family prospered until they became too widely known. Deciding that they should leave for Australia, Mr Kaggs put an advertisement in The Times informing readers that ‘a poor but respectable family required a small sum to enable them to make up the amount of passage….’ The response to this was so generous that Mr Kaggs and his family were able to live for another two years in London before finally departing for Melbourne.” 

The moral of this is not clear.

Tomorrow in Part 2, we encounter LLangollen, the ladies of; Davidson, the Reverend Harold Francis; and a cross-reference that I made up myself. ds 

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2025